Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, Bk 1)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Hercule Poirot, Bk 1)
reviewed on + 813 more book reviews


This is Poirots first case: a locked room murder. He is brought in to solve a probable murder by his old acquaintance, Captain Hastings. A rich, elderly woman has been poisoned. The rather dysfunctional household is in general turmoil. The reader is led through a series of probable suspects, each in turn supposedly cleared to make way for the next. Alas, poor Hastings! Poirot will not disclose anything until the very end. But, finally Hastings inadvertently leads Poirot to the case-breaking clue and he springs to action to denounce the mastermind. Read this one before you read Curtain, his last case.